When he had finished his work the sense of relief and refreshment was
astonishing. In this barber-shop I learned for the first time in what
the perfection of earthly happiness consists. The sudden cessation of
protracted and severe pain brings with it so exquisite a sense of
enjoyment that I do not believe that successful ambition, or requited
love, or the gratification of the wildest wishes for wealth, has a
happiness to bestow at all comparable to the calm, contented,
all-satisfying happiness that comes from a remission of intolerable
pain. For the first time in a month I felt an emotion that could be
called positively pleasant. As I left the shop I needed no assistance
in reaching the sidewalk, and waiked the streets for an hour or two
with something of an assured step.

Among other indications of the change taking place at this time in the
system was the increased freezing perspiration perpetually going on,
especially down the spine. This sense of dampness and icy coldness has
now continued for many months, and for nearly a year was accompanied
with a heavy cold. During the opium-eating years I do not remember to
have been affected at all in this latter way; but a severe cold at
this time settled upon the lungs, one indication of which was frequent
sternutation, consequent apparently upon the inflammation of the
mucous membrane.

In the entire week from Christmas to New Year's the progress in
abandonment of opium was but a single grain. I am sure there was no
want of resolution at this trying time. Day by day I exhausted all my
resources in the vain endeavor to get on with half, three-quarters,
even seven-eighths of a grain; but moans and groans, and biting the
tongue till the blood came, as it repeatedly did, would not carry me
over the twenty-four hours without the full grain. It seemed as if